CHESTER — Rashad Calhoun has gone from making prom dresses for his friends to the runways of New York City, and in September, the 26-year-old city resident will be showing off his clothing line to thousands of fashion insiders at Paris Fashion Week.

Getting his first sewing machine at the age of 13, Calhoun would take orders from his family and friends for formal gowns and dresses.

“It started when I was in eighth grade,” Calhoun said. “I always had an eye for fashion and clothes ... I started teaching myself different things and making custom prom dresses.”

Friends started referring their friends, and his hobby blossomed into a new enterprise for the self-taught Chester High School graduate. His clothing company, Dahsar by Rashad, is run out of his home on West 12th Street, where the dining room serves as the design and manufacturing space. Calhoun does much of his work late at night after coming home from his day job working as a unit secretary at Fair Acres in Middletown.

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“It’s all I do,” he said of his business. “When I get home, I’m up on the sewing machine until 3 or 4 in the morning. It’s like I’m working two full-time jobs.”

His dedication paid off when he was invited to exhibit his Black Collection at a New York fashion show last September. The exposure and networking proved effective, earning him an invite to Paris Fashion Week later this year.

“After the show, people started calling me and stopping me in the halls,” Calhoun said. “People are really starting to notice me.”

His styles range from casual male attire to high-fashion couture dresses with a dominatrix and bondage theme. One of his gowns was worn by actress and comedienne Rain Pryor, daughter of the late Richard Pryor, at a red carpet event at the Apollo Theater.

He plans on taking about 30 pieces to Paris with him, and has some ideas for what they’ll look like. His Black Collection, which was featured in New York, represented a period of sadness that he experienced.

“Everything I create is about my life,” Calhoun said. “The Black Collection was created during a dark time in my life. My grandmother had passed away and there were other things going on.”

In the next couple of months, Calhoun plans on hosting a fashion show in Chester to showcase some new designs and also to raise some funds to finance his trip to France. The theme of that show will be “Blood on the Runway.”

“It’s called that because it’s my blood, sweat and tears that go into my clothes,” Calhoun said.

While a Paris invite is a huge boost for his company, it’s not the pinnacle of what Calhoun hopes to accomplish. He is aiming to get his clothes in a major retail outlet like Macy’s and plans on using the exposure he’ll have in Paris to entice some buyers.

“I really want to build a brand,” he said. “I want Dahsar to be the next Gucci or Versace.”

After Paris, Calhoun has a loaded schedule. Aside from his two jobs, he’ll be busy planning his wedding. He proposed to his fiancee in September at Fashion Week and the couple plans to marry in March 2015. He won’t be designing the wedding dress, but will be designing and making his fiancee’s reception dress.

Calhoun said that even though he is only 26, he has worked years to achieve this level of success.

“Looking back, it’s actually been a long time,” he said. “It’s been a lot of hard work.”

He looks forward to the day when Dahsar by Rashad can be his only job. His show in New York was a big step in that direction.

“It was my coming out,” he said. “It was my opportunity to show who Dahsar was to the world.”

Now, he will have an international stage to display his collection on a 100-foot runway in Paris.

“It’s so amazing,” he said. “You do stuff like that so you get to do something better. It’s everything I worked for.”